Newton's Experiment Research Articles

Newton the Alchemist: Science, Enigma, and the Quest for Nature's "Secret Fire"

Newton the Alchemist: Science, Enigma, and the Quest for Nature's "Secret Fire"

A Theory of the Aphorism: From Confucius to Twitter

A Theory of the Aphorism: From Confucius to Twitter

Newton's Law of Cooling: Follow up and exploration

Isaac Newton's paper, in Latin, on thermal science, Scala graduum Caloris, (Scale of the Degree of Heat), published in the Philosophical Transactions (1701) is investigated in detail. This paper contains the descriptions related to Newton's Law of Cooling. We compared the Newton's temperature measurements and physical phenomena to evaluate his measurement lower than the boiling point, or 34 °N in Newton's temperature. In order to follow up the paper, we conducted Newton's experiments on forced convection using a small wind tunnel and tried to reproduce the original results, especially in the high-temperature region. We also conducted cooling experiments on natural convection. If the cooling times from the burning temperature of coal (192 °N) to the body temperature (12 °N) were 66, 80.5, and 132 min, the corresponding wind velocities were estimated to be 3.2, 2.2, and 0.7 m/s, respectively. For a wind speed of 0.7 m/s, natural convection cannot be neglected. The study also addresses the reason for why Newton published an anonymous paper on temperature measurement at temperatures higher than the boiling point of the water.

Hume's Colors and Newton's Colored Lights

In a 2004 paper, ‘Hume's Missing Shade of Blue Reconsidered from a Newtonian Perspective,’ Eric Schliesser argues that Hume's well-known discussion of the missing shade of blue ‘reveals considerable ignorance of Newton's achievement in optics,’ and that Hume has failed to assimilate the lessons taught by Newton's optical experiments. I argue in this paper, contrary to Schliesser, that Hume's views on color are logically and evidentially independent of Newton's results. In developing my reading, I will argue that Schliesser accepts an overly broad interpretation of the implications of Newton's experimental results, and takes inadequate account of Hume's disciplined methodological restrictions on the kinds of experiential evidence that are to be admitted in building the foundations of his science of human nature.

COURLIS: a 1D suspension and bedload code

COURLIS is a 1D sedimentology module coupled with MASCARET, 1D hydraulic code of the TELEMAC-MASCARET open source system. The code has been developed for more than 10 years, mainly for suspension sediment transport. Recently, the need of a 1D bedload code has been identified to model the long term evolution of rivers and reservoirs (several decades). New numerical schemes were implemented, some improvements were done in the geometry evolution algorithms. In terms of performance and robustness, the best scheme implemented is a finite volume upwind/downwind scheme. Several solutions are implemented to reduce calculation time. This new version of COURLIS for bedload transport was validated successfully on test-cases (Soni and Newton experiments). A real case has been simulated during an 11 year period. The calculation time is very similar to those obtained with codes tested in the benchmark and the results are in a good agreement with measurements and other code results. COURLIS (suspension and bedload transport) will be released in the next version of the TELEMAC-MASCARET open source system and so, it will be freely available for sedimentology community. Further developments are planned in 2018.

A hero for their times: early biographies of NewtonIliffeRobKeynesMiloHiggittRebekaheds. Early biographies of Isaac Newton, 1660–1885(2 vols). Pickering & Chatto, London2006. pp. lxix +387; xlvii +420. £195.00 (hardback).1-85196-778-8.

Rob Iliffe, Milo Keynes, Rebekah Higgitt. eds. Early biographies of Isaac Newton, 1660–1885 (2 vols). Pickering & Chatto, London 2006. pp. lxix +387; xlvii +420. £195.00 (hardback). 1-85196-778-8. Though biography be no longer an act of worship, it is not yet a solemn and impartial judgment: we

Da budet belij svet: generatciya superkontinuuma sverhkorotkimi lazernimi impul'sami

Three centuries after Newton's experiments on the decomposition of white light into its spectral components and the synthesis of white light from various colors, nonlinear-optical transformations of ultrashort laser pulses have made it possible to produce an artificial white light with unique spectral properties, controlled time duration, and a high spectral brightness. Owing to its broad and continuous spectrum, such radiation is called supercontinuum. The laser generation of white light is an interesting physical phenomenon and the relevant technology is gaining in practical implications — it offers novel solutions for optical communications and control of ultrashort laser pulses, helps to achieve an unprecedented precision in optical metrology, serves to probe the atmosphere of the Earth, and suggests new strategies for the creation of compact multiplex light sources for nonlinear spectroscopy, microscopy, and laser biomedicine. Here, we provide a review of physical mechanisms behind the laser generation of white light, examine its applications, and discuss the methods of generation of broadband radiation with controlled spectral, temporal, and phase parameters.

Color: a multidisciplinary approach

Preface Contents INTRODUCTION What do we Mean by Color? Historical Survey PHYSICS OF LIGHT AND COLOR The Nature (Theory) of Light Color by Refraction: Newton's Experiments Color of the Rainbow Peacock's Colors, a Phenomenon of Interference How Many Causes of Color do we Know? CHEMISTRY OF COLOR History of Colorants Inorganic Pigments Organic Colorants Correlations between Chemical Structure and Color of Chemical Compounds COLORIMETRY Color Measurements Color - Harmony or Contrasts? HOW DO WE SEE COLORS Perception and Cognition of Color Anatomy of the Human Eye Photochemistry of the Retina What does the Eye tell the Brain? Psychophysical Investigations on Color Vision Color Vision of Animals HOW DO WE NAME COLORS? From Color Chemistry to Color Linguistics The Phenomenon (Prodigy) of Human Language Categorization of the Color Space by Color Naming Color and Phonological Universals Cultural Influence on Color Naming COLOR IN ART AND IN OTHER CULTURAL ACTIVITIES Color in European Art from Antiquity to Gothic From Renaissance to Neo-Impressionism Art in the 20th Century Color in the Art of Non-European Culture: The Case of Japan Color in Psychology Goethe's 'Farbenlehre' Sound-Color Synesthesia Epilogue Acknowledgements Author Index Subject Index.

Newton's law of cooling

Textbooks on heat transfer generally refer to Newton's law of cooling but they give no details of Newton's experiment. The purpose of the first part of this paper is to give details of Newton's work. His explanation of why he thought the law was correct, and the experiment that he did to confirm it, are still of interest. It is worth stressing that he did not write his law down in the form of an equation nor did he define or use the heat transfer coefficient. He was however the first to postulate that the rate of loss of temperature of a hot object, with air blowing past, is proportional to the temperature itself. The second part of the paper is an attempt to reconstruct Newton's transient cooling experiment using modern knowledge of heat transfer. It is necessary to allow for varying heat transfer coefficients and specific heats and hence a numerical approach has to be used on a computer. The output of the process is data for temperature versus time for the test section. The next step is to take this simulated cooling time data and analyse it using the same method Newton used, to produce the same type of estimated temperatures that he obtained. By modern standards his estimates of the melting point of various metals were too low. It has been suggested that this was because the metals were impure but a purely heat transfer explanation is shown to be more plausible. A simple extension of his explanation of why the law works is used to derive a result close to accepted modern equations for heat transfer coefficient.

Lumière et couleurs dans le Traité de Haüy, ou « la véritable méthode pour parvenir à l'explication » dans les sciences/Light and colour in Haüy's Traité or « the true method for arriving at explanations » in science

SUMMARY. — The purpose of this article is first to examine briefly how Haüy fulfils his methodological aims, when working out his theory of light and colour. I then endeavour to bring out the meaning and scope of his approach in presenting scientific subject matter, by means of a precise analysis of Newton's experiment on the prism, taken up by Haüy and set at the center of the experimental device that leads to the elaboration of his theory of the generation of colour.

Goethe's `Protestant Reformation' as a Textual Demonstration: Comment on Jackson

This Comment takes its point of departure from Myles Jackson's historical study of Goethe's attempt to incite a `protestant reformation' in colour theory. According to Jackson, Goethe tried to unseat the remote authority of Newton's science in favour of a science grounded in non-specialized personal knowledge. Goethe's natural-philosophical texts, as we shall demonstrate, involve readers in a firsthand engagement with the actual experimental materials. Consequently, Goethe's physics is presented in the form of a reflexive anthropological inquiry. When Jackson proposes that Goethe respecifies Newton's optical experiments, he treats this as a substantive historic accomplishment. Although his paper nicely reviews how Goethe can be understood to be respecifying Newton's experiments, in this Comment we demonstrate the possibility of such respecification both as a way of reconceptualizing an event in the history of science, and as a distinctive mode of ethnomethodological inquiry. In other words, we invite readers to work with the materials of this text in order to demonstrate the possibility of a reformed experimental field.

Absolute Space and Conventionalism

experiment in the context of a four-dimensional formulation of Newtonian theory. I will proceed by outlining a number of alternative global structures for Newtonian space-time. Corresponding to each structure is an appropriate Newtonian theory; namely, a theory whose postulates are appropriate mathematical variants of the postulates of Newtonian mechanics and gravitation, and which posits the given structure as the structure for space-time. I will argue that if we adopt a conventionalist attitude towards these theories, then we can consistently maintain that the basic principles of Newtonian theory are true, and yet deny the Newtonian's claim that certain observable phenomena must be interpreted in terms of acceleration relative to some non-material spatial entity. While I will focus on Newton's experiment of the rotating globes, I believe that my arguments also apply to his bucket experiment. I will begin my discussion, in section 2, by presenting three different ways of formulating the structure of Newtonian space-time. In section 3, I will contrast the ways in which the realist and the conventionalist view the relative ontological status of these different structures. In section 4, I will examine Newton's 'rotating globe' experiment, with particular emphasis on the difficulties which this experiment raises for the conventionalist. Finally, in section 5, I will try to show how the conventionalist can deal with these difficulties by using the results developed in sections 2 and 3. 2 Newton's remarks in the Scholium to his definitions in the Principia suggest that space-time consists of 'absolute space persisting through absolute time'. A space-time described in this way can be thought of as having a direct product structure Space x Time, where Space is R3, Euclidean three-space, and Time is represented by R, the real numbers. For any pair of points in this space-time, there is a uniquely defined spatial separation and a uniquely defined temporal separation. I will refer to a space-time with the structure R3 x R as 'Newton's space-time', N. According to a second formulation, the structure of 'flat Newtonian

The Development of Newton's Theory of Color

TO perform my late promise to you, I shall without further ceremony acquaint you, that in the beginning of the Year 1666 (at which time I applyed my self to the grinding of Optick glasses of other figures than Spherical,) I procured me a Triangular glass-Prisme, to try therewith the celebrated Phaenomena of Colours. 1 Thus Isaac Newton, introducing his first paper on light, introduced himself to the scientific world of his day. If the words, as introduction, lead us to look forward, not only to his work in optics, but to the entire career which would see him in the end enthroned as reigning monarch over British science, so also they look backward toward a long tradition of optical research and speculation. The phenomena of colors were, as Newton said, celebrated. When he darkened his chamber to play a spectrum against the wall opposite the window, however, he was not, as the words might be taken to imply, repeating an experiment established in optical tradition. Newton's experiment differed, deliberately, in crucial factors from any that the tradition presented to him. Indeed it was designed to overthrow the received doctrine of colors which the tradition, tracing its descent back some two thousand years, had delivered to him. The planning of the experiment, not its observed results, constituted the revolution in the theory of colors. The mechanistic philosophy established as the foundation of seventeenth century science by Descartes set the context of Newton's investigation and provided the immediate complex of ideas that his work in optics overturned. The phenomena of light and colors had acquired new significance in the eyes of Descartes and of those following him who saw in the mechanical philosophy the key to the riddles of nature. When Descartes argued that light distinguishes the three basic elements or orders of corpuscles from which res extensae are composed, so that bodies are either luminous, transparent, or opaque, he could not fail to be interested in optics.2 The phenomena of colors, moreover, took on major importance in his attack on Aristotelian real qualities. If we say that we see color in a body, Descartes asserted, it is the same as saying that we see something but are absolutely ignorant as to its nature. We are utterly unable to conceive what it could

Sir Isaac Newton's Prisms

IT is reported from Italy that three optical prisms formerly belonging to Sir Isaac Newton have now found a permanent resting place in the Museum of Treviso. The prisms in question were originally in the possession of Newton's step-niece, Mrs. Conduitt (1680-1739), who spent some fifteen years looking after Newton's house, until her marriage in 1717, to Mr. Conduitt, Newton's successor at the Mint. They were acquired from Mrs. Conduitt by Count Francesco Algarotti, a Venetian nobleman and a prominent figure in London society during the middle eighteenth century. After many changes of ownership the prisms were deposited some years ago in the Treviso Museum, to which institution they were recently bequeathed by the late Prof. Luigi Bailo. Although there seems little doubt that these prisms were at some time associated with Newton, it is not easy to assess what part they played in the fundamental discoveries and subsequent work of Newton on the dispersion of white light. Signor Algarotti was a great admirer of Newton and was the author of “Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophy explained for the Use of Ladies”. In the English translation, published in 1739, we learn (vol. 2, p. 70) that Algarotti had found that the prisms available in Italy were unsuitable for repeating Newton's experiments, but that he had been fortunate enough to receive from England some which proved excellent. Later in the same volume (p. 129) we read “I have myself seen the first telescope [Newton's reflecting telescope] … preserved in a city of England … with this are treasured up those prisms which the first time differently refracted the rays of light in the hands of our great philosopher…” There is no doubt that from about 1664 onwards Newton used many prisms in his experiments and fortunately one of these, at least, is preserved in Great Britain; it was presented in 1927 to the British Museum by the Rev. H. T. Inman, who in a private publication has very carefully traced its descent from Newton. It is made of flint glass, and confirmatory evidence of its date has been adduced from the nature of the glass.

A Broadcast Talk on the Ultra-Violet Rays

Ultra-violet rays were discovered as long ago as 1800, but it is only comparatively recently that people, other than scientists, have taken much interest in them. But to get back to the beginning of the subject one has to go back as far as 1666, when Isaac Newton made his famous experiment. He let a beam of sunlight pass through a glass prism and found that this beam was apparently split into a lot of different rays, which are now known as the spectral colours. Newton's experiment may be arranged so that the rays emerging from the prism fall on a white screen, and the band of different coloured lights, ranging from red at one end to violet at the other, can be carefully examined. Between the red and violet are the bands of orange, yellow, green, blue and indigo. There is no definite point where the violet light stops, as some people can see a little further than others in the region of light, but no one can see any colour beyond a certain limit, and this is where the ultra-violet rays begin. These rays are normally present in sunlight, but as they are invisible, Newton did not detect them. Although they cannot be seen, they have a profound effect on many things; photographic plates, for instance, are much more sensitive to ultra-violet rays than to ordinary light; in fact the discovery of ultra-violet rays was due to their chemical action.

On Gravitation and Relativity: being the Halley Lecture delivered on June 12, 1920

THERE is a special appropriateness, as Prof. Sampson points out, in choosing a gravitational subject for the Halley Lecture, in view of the important part that Halley played in securing the publication of the “Principia.” The lecture is an able résumé of the various speculations on the subject, from Galileo's “Dialogues” and Newton's hypothesis of æther-pressure down to Einstein's theory. The author evinces the highest admiration for Einstein's skill in devising a formula which expresses his results “without redundancy, defect, or effort, and whose boldness, range, brilliance, and resounding successes” have commanded universal attention; but on proceeding to examine the formula in detail he confesses to his dislike of some of the devices employed, in particular imaginary time and the obliteration of the distinction between past and future. He alludes to Newton's experiment of the rotating bucket and to Foucault's pendulum experiment as establishing the possibility of detecting the absolute direction of an axis of rotation. It will probably be admitted, even by the convinced relativist, that it is of advantage to students to have the claims of the older “common-sense” kinematics placed before them in an attractive form, which the author has certainly done. On Gravitation and Relativity: being the Halley Lecture delivered on June 12, 1920. Prof. R. A. Sampson By. Pp. 24. (Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1920.) Price 2s. net.

Societies and Academies

Societies and Academies

A letter from Liege concerning Mr. Newton's experiment of the coloured spectrum; together with some exceptions against his theory of light and colours

Honrd Sir, Mr Gascoigne having received your obliging letter of Jan. 18 with fresh directions from Mr Newton; but wanting convenience to make the experiment according to the said instructions, he has requested me to supply his want.